How writing has improved my week

This week hasn’t been a very happy one. It was very emotionally taxing for reasons that are wrapped into a very long, boring story. But the good side to that was that in order to distract myself I buried myself into my manuscript.

I was taking a break from the book I’m translating, so I decided to do some editing on my own novel. I haven’t had a look at it in one month, and the distance did wonders. I re-wrote the pivotal scene with a completely different outcome, added more scenes and another side character. He’s an old, grumpy pastry chef with a penchant for bad language and soap operas. He was so vivid in my mind that it was a delight to write him, even though he only has a few short scenes.

My WIP is not all unicorns and rainbows, there are some fairly heart-breaking moments in it, but working on it was still a source of joy for me this week, when nothing else seemed to work. And there are a few funny scenes. At least, I hope the readers will find them funny, too, because my sense of humor can sometimes be pretty weird. 😉

Plus, you’ll get to see Harper dishing out love advice. Yup, you heard that right. It’s Harper who shares some love wisdom with the inimitable Chloe. Though, he’ll have to move over and make some space for the hero of this novel, Chris.

Here’s a tiny snippet of a scene between Chris & Chloe, shortly after she moves in with him (told from Chris’s POV).

“I’m hotter than you by a mile. Or make that a hundred degrees.” Chloe jabs her finger in my chest and I cover her hand with my own, but she wriggles it away quickly and retreats to her bedroom for more stuff to bring out.

“Does that make me cooler than you, then?” I call after her.

I can hear her tumbling laughter even through the loud music. “That was a good one,” she says.